We carried out a review of the data available to us about Ansell Court on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Ansell Court, you can give feedback on this service.
Ansell Court is an extra care scheme. It is a block of 53 self-contained flats. This service is a new purpose-built property for people who are aged 55 and over, providing care and support to those who need it due to age or disability. At the time of the inspection, there were 26 people living at Ansell Court receiving personal care.
Not everyone living at Ansell Court received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Improvements had been made to the service since our last inspection. People told us they liked living at Ansell Court. The providers procedures around complaints handling were improved and people and families told us they could report any concerns they had.
Where risks to people had been identified, staff responded to these by following guidance in people's care plans. Staff knew people well and as such they were able to tell us about how they kept people safe.
People received their medicines as prescribed. Staff were safely recruited, and staffing levels were enough to ensure people’s care needs were met.
There were processes in place to prevent and control infection at the service, through regular COVID-19 testing, additional cleaning and safe visiting precautions.
The management team monitored the quality of the service provided to help ensure people received safe and effective care. The management team made regular checks on all aspects of care provision and actions were taken to continuously improve people's experience of care.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 7 December 2020). There was one breach of regulation around the management of complaints.
The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.
At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 14 October 2020. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve how they managed complaints.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Responsive and Well-led which contain those requirements and/or were rated Requires Improvement at the last inspection.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Ansell Court on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
Ansell Court is an extra care scheme. It is a block of 53 self-contained flats. This service is a new purpose-built property for people who are aged 55 and over, providing care and support to those who need it due to age or disability. At the time of the inspection there were 41 people living in the service.
Ansell Court is fully accessible for people using wheelchairs. There is 24-hour staffing.
The provider is Your Choice (Barnet) Ltd - a social care local authority trading company (LATC) based in North London and part of a larger organisation called The Barnet Group.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The feedback from people using the service and their friends and families was generally good about the quality of care and support provided to them.
Some people who had raised concerns or complaints were not happy about the outcome or did not fully understand the outcome despite an investigation taking place.
The service identified risks relating to people’s health and care needs and there was guidance in place on how to minimise the identified risks for people. Their care and support needs were written in a care plan which they agreed to and staff followed the plans in order to provide the right support to people.
People received their medicines safely and as prescribed. There were some minor recording errors which had not been identified during audits so that learning could take place.
There was a safe recruitment policy and procedure to ensure staff recruited were suitable people to work in the service.
There were increased infection control measures in place in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The provider reacted appropriately to keep people safe, but most staff had not received infection control training. The registered manager arranged this training immediately after our inspection. Staff had appropriate personal protective equipment and knew how to use it safely.
Fire safety was a concern as some staff were overdue with completing essential fire safety training. This was addressed immediately following feedback from our inspection.
Staff had regular supervision to help them to carry out their role effectively. Those who had been employed for a year had also had an appraisal. Staff told us that they felt supported, worked well as a team and found the manager helpful and approachable.
Staff supported people with their nutritional needs when needed. This ranged from helping with food shopping and cooking to helping people to eat and drink.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
Most relatives felt engaged with the service and confirmed that they received regular updates and feedback about their relative. However, some relatives did comment that communication between them, and the service could be improved. We gave this feedback to the registered manager who agreed to act on it.
The registered manager listened to feedback from people and people were empowered to take part in the running of the service for example setting up a gym in the service.
There were regular health and safety, care and records audits to help the management team and the provider have a good oversight of the quality and safety of the service and identify improvements where needed. Some audits did not contain enough detail for us to see which records had been checked.
We have identified one breach of regulation in relation to how the provider communicated the outcome of concerns and complaints to people at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
We have made two recommendations to the provider. One is to improve the recording of medicines and the other is to improve some audits.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
This service was registered with us on 5 February 2019 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
We carried out an focused inspection of this service. The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about infection control. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We did not find serious concerns about infection control in the service. We inspected and widened the scope of the inspection to become a comprehensive inspection.
Follow up
We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.